Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Yo, dawg, check it out, check it out.”

American Idol fans know that’s Randy Jackson’s way of saying, “Listen up, I’m about to critique your performance.”

Watch Idol for a while, and you get the impression Simon spends a lot of time sitting in the back of a limo, stewing over colorful ways to tell singers they stink.

And you get the impression Paula passes a lot of time in her dressing room, peering at a mirror and pondering new ways to tell performers they are who they are, and that’s just fine. And even if your singing stinks, you look good tonight.

Randy, he’s the steadying force on the panel of judges. The mediator in the Paula-Simon flare-ups. The voice of reason.

Sorry to borrow the title of an old Paula song, but he’s the judge who will deliver a critique straight up without being unnecessarily surly or patronizingly pleasant.

He’s also the Idol judge who latches onto a phrase that sums up his feelings about a performance, and isn’t afraid to use the phrase over and over and over again.

Idol viewers know what I’m talking about. From “I didn’t love it” to “I’ve gotta give you props,” we’re all familiar with Randy lingo.

So here’s a season seven breakdown of Randy’s ramblings, a detailed analysis of all 85 individual performance reviews since the finals started — 85 reviews sprinkled with no fewer than 57 “check it outs.” (Yep, I counted.)

So, yo, here goes … Randy says:

1. “That was OK for me” or “That was just OK for me”

Translation: Pretty mediocre. Better luck next time.

Times used: 17

2. “That was hot,” “That was blazing hot” or minor variations thereof (my favorite: “That was another hot molten hot lava bomb tonight!”)

Translation: Wow

Times used: 10

3. “There were some pitch problems” or “that was just a little pitchy.”

Translation: Some of those notes made me cringe.

Times used: 7

4. “I don’t know if that was your best performance.”

Translation: Come on, you can do better than that.

Times used: 7

5. “I didn’t love it for you.”

Translation: Why in the world did you decide to sing that song?

Times used: 7

So, check it out.

Randy did his thing, and wasn’t nearly as repetitive in season seven as viewers might have thought.

Coming next …

Tomorrow: Worst songs / Best Banter

Tuesday: Best songs of 2008

Wednesday: Our judges say

Thursday: The Idols’ futures